


He's The Tear In My Heart

by RavenpuffWrites



Series: You're The Sunflower [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: 5 Times, Baby Peter Parker, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Kid Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man, Post-Iron Man 1, Pre-Iron Man 1, also ft Ned and Peter getting into trouble but only mentioned, ft Rhodey being a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24381487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffWrites/pseuds/RavenpuffWrites
Summary: Peter had a habit of falling asleep in the car.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: You're The Sunflower [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469042
Comments: 10
Kudos: 310





	He's The Tear In My Heart

Maybe it’s the new environment, Tony thinks, or maybe it’s just that Peter can sense that his entire life has changed, but in the two weeks since he had brought the kid home, the only time he ever seems to sleep is when Tony is holding him. Although he was content with letting Rhodey hold him for a while and even feed him, and he didn’t mind being placed in his crib as long as he had his stuffed dragon, when Peter was ready for sleep, he would start to cry until Tony was holding him. He would calm down almost immediately, and within a few minutes be sound asleep in his dad’s arms.

Which, as Rhodey pointed out oh so helpfully, was obviously not an ideal situation. It wasn’t like Tony could just walk into meetings carrying a child, but he couldn’t be away from Peter for very long either or the boy wouldn’t get enough sleep and would be incredibly fussy. It was definitely a problem that they needed to sort out sooner rather than later, but in those first two weeks he just never has the time. Between learning how to be a new father and juggling an entire company, Tony feels like there are some days he hardly gets to breathe let alone figure out a solution to his son’s clinginess.

Maybe that’s why he doesn’t argue too much when Rhodey suggests that he take the week off before Christmas and drive upstate to the small lake house he hadn’t been to in years. Because while on one hand he had promised himself to never step back foot in that house as long as he lived, there’s a larger part of him craving for the ability to disappear from the face of the earth for a while. To spend time, just him and his kid, and figure out exactly what the hell he was meant to do next.

It turns out to be an even better idea than expected though, because not even an hour into the trip, Tony noticed that Peter’s quiet babbling had come to the stop, and when he looked behind him at the boy when they came to a stoplight, he was surprised to see sleepy brown eyes blinking back at him.

All it took was Tony singing softly to him for Peter to drift off to sleep completely. The first time Tony had ever seen him do so while not in his arms.

He wonders to himself as he drives carefully towards the lake house if Peter’s parents often took him on drives, and if that’s why the boy seemed so content to be in the car. Or if maybe it was just the soft hum of the engine and the gentle rocking that brought him peace.

Either way, Tony didn’t care. He would count it as a small win that his son had fallen asleep, and made extra sure to avoid any holes or bumps in the road that would have woken him up too soon.

* * *

Tony tried to take Peter up to the cabin as often as he could. It was good for both of them to get out of the city as often as they could, and Peter enjoyed the weekends at the cabin especially because it meant that he got to have his dad all to himself for two whole days.

And for the four-year-old, there was nothing better than getting to spend time without “work” or “phones” or any mean people that took his daddy away from him. As much as Peter liked spending time with his Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey and sometimes even Miss Pepper, none of them were as fun as his daddy.

Peter loved the weekends they got to spend together, especially when they came after a long week of Tony having to work.

Or in this case two weeks. The last three days of which were spent with Tony across the country in Malibu, and when he finally stepped back onto his floor, Peter had firmly attached himself to his leg and refused to let go.

It was only friday morning, but even Pepper agreed that Tony should take the weekend early and head up to the cabin with Peter until his son was no longer acting like a spider-monkey. Within an hour of arriving home, Tony had packed up the few things he and Peter needed that weren’t already upstate, and set off in the car before the traffic was able to get too bad.

For the first 30 minutes or so Peter happily chatted in the back seat, telling Tony about everything he had done since the last time he had called (which wasn’t a lot considering it had only been 7 hours before, and Peter had fallen asleep on the call and stayed that way for at least 5 hours Rhodey had said), as well as asking a dozen questions about all the things the two of them could do that weekend (the main objectives on Peter’s list was cuddling, watching movies, and baking a batch of his favorite cookies). Tony listened and nodded and responded to his son whenever the moment presented itself, but for the most part he let Peter just talk.

When the words finally ran out and the car fell silent except the quiet sound of music drifting through the speakers, Tony knew without having to look his son had fallen asleep. Sure enough when he gets the chance to check, he sees Peter’s head leaning against the side of his car seat, his teddy bear squished between his face and shoulder providing some sort of pillow for him. His curls are falling into his face just slightly, and Tony wants nothing more than to reach back and brush them away, but right now he knows that nothing was more important than keeping both his hands on the wheel.

It wasn’t unusual for Peter to fall asleep during long car rides. And Tony had become an expert about avoiding the holes in the road so that he wouldn’t wake up.

If only the government would take his damn suggestions and fix the roads, these trips to and from the cabin would be so much easier. And if it had been anyone else, Tony never would have taken so much care.

But for Peter? For Peter, he would take as much care as he needed.

* * *

One of the reasons that Peter had earned his nickname of “Spider-Monkey” from Rhodey cane from the fact that he _loved_ to climb on to any surface he could reach. From the moment he started walking, he was found all too frequently on top of tables, his toy box, anything he could climb up on. He took to scaling trees at the lake house by the age of five, and never once showed any signs of fear for being up high even though it nearly gave Tony a heart attack every time he found his son perched in some place that he shouldn’t be.

He knew it was only a matter of time before Peter got hurt, but there was no stopping the boy climbing anything he was able to. Although considering Tony signed Peter up for gymnastics and was planning on signing him up for Aerial Silks once he turned 7 (in two months!), it wasn’t as if he exactly discouraged his son’s antics very much. After all, Peter was a kid. Running around, getting into trouble, that was just what they did.

Getting hurt? That was also something that happened to kids from time to time. Tony _knew_ it was really only a matter of time until he had to deal with more than a few bumps and scrapes.

That didn’t mean it scared him any less when one afternoon at the lake house, he watches as if in slow motion as Peter loses his grip and falls from the tree.

He wasn’t too far up, but it was a big enough drop that when he landed, he broke his arm.

Funnily enough, Peter didn’t seem to be panicked or all that upset about it at all. Sure, he was crying from the pain, and Tony had to scoop the boy up in his arms to carry him to the car, but overall, he didn’t seem scared. When Tony was fumbling to strap Peter in because his hands were shaking so much, the boy reached out with his good hand and grabbed onto Tony’s, assuring him “I’m okay, Daddy. You don’t have to worry so much. I’m okay.”

By the time they got to the hospital Peter had stopped crying, and he seemed more excited about being able to pick out a cast color and having Tony sign it than showing any signs he was upset at all.

Tony’s hands were still shaking a little as he loaded Peter into the car to head home a few hours later. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for his son to reveal he was more traumatized by what had happened than he initially let on.

But it never came. Five minutes into the drive home Peter was fast asleep in the back sleep, and Tony felt the last pieces of fear slipping away when he looked into the review and saw the smile on his kid's face.

If Peter was sleeping, then maybe things were okay after all.

* * *

The first day Peter goes back to school after his dad comes home, he makes it through the entire day without a problem. According to his teacher, it was the best day Peter had had at school in three months. He had run around with Ned at recess and gone to the library all by himself, and only looked once at the phone he had been allowed to carry ever since Tony disappeared, otherwise leaving it tucked into his lunch box so it would be safe. After school, Peter had jumped into the car and excitedly started to talk about his day, just as he always would before.

The second day Peter is back at school, Tony gets a call after two hours from his crying son begging to be picked up and brought home.

The next three days of school that follow similarly end up in tears. On Friday, they just make it to the school parking lot before Peter begins to have a panic attack over his dad disappearing as soon as he’s out of sight, and Tony has to climb into the back seat in order to give him a hug until he is able to calm down. They sit there until long after the school bell rings signaling the start of the day, with Tony rubbing circles onto Peter’s back and singing softly to his son, as Peter clings tightly on to his shirt and cries harder than he has since Tony had returned home.

Peter cries and he cries until there are no more tears, and when there is nothing left but quiet sniffling Tony stops singing and suggests softly that maybe they should head back to the tower, and pack up early to go to the cabin. So that they could spend time just the two of them for as long as Peter needed.

Peter agrees and lets his dad strap him back into his seat before he climbs back up front.

It doesn’t take but five minutes for Peter to fall asleep, exhausted from the panic attack and all of the crying that followed. So Tony texts Rhodey (who hadn’t left the tower since he got home) and asks him to pack suitcases for him and Peter so he didn’t have to wake the kid up.

As they’re waiting outside the tower, Tony turns to look at Peter, with his tear-stained face and little arms wrapped tightly around his bear. He thinks about the sound of his son crying, the nightmares, and the fact he hadn’t let his dad out of his sight whenever he could help it. And Tony thinks as he looks back at his kid, who had just spent three months expecting that each day would be the one he got a phone call saying his dad was dead. The same kid who had begged him not to leave all those months before, and who had heartbreakingly admitted more than once he thought what happened was his fault.

And Tony looks at Peter, and thinks maybe Rhodey was right about his son needing someone to talk to. He had rejected the idea of therapy before, but after hearing those cries Tony was willing to try _anything._

Tony clicked on the chat second to the top on his messages, and set a quick email to Pepper asking her to do research on the best kid therapists so he could look over the options and find one for Peter.

Until then, a drive to their hideaway should be enough to bring the smile back to his son’s face.

* * *

On the weekends that they couldn’t go upstate, Peter often spent his days staying at the house of his best friend, Ned. Tony was never sure exactly what they got up to, despite Peter’s overexcited rambling that started as soon as Tony picked up and often lasted until well after they reached home. Whatever it was they did, his kid always came back with a buzzing happiness that lasted for days and made Peter even happier than he usually was. And it made weekends Tony had to work easier for both of them to deal with, seem like less of a loss because there was something good coming out of it.

When Tony picked Peter up one afternoon, it didn’t take a genius to figure out whatever his son and Ned had gotten up to that weekend, it had lasted right up until he had arrived. Peter’s face was flushed red from the heat and slightly sunburnt as well, his hair sticking to his forehead from the sweat. His clothes were covered in dirt and a bit of dry mud was stuck to his face, his knees scraped, and his legs covered in bruises.

Normal kid stuff, really, and more importantly the mark of Peter’s first successful weekend away from Tony since he had returned from Afghanistan. He had been by the phone all weekend, waiting for the call that his kid needed him, but it never came. Peter seemed almost reluctant to leave when Tony had showed up, and although his happiness was not quite as bright as it had been before, Peter was wearing the biggest smile Tony had seen in months and talking a mile a minute as they sat in traffic, sounding more and more like himself with every word.

The real comfort though came to Tony when they finally began to drive again, and silence settled over the car. When he risked a glance back, he half expected to see Peter staring blankly out the window as he had started doing more often than not in car rides since Tony returned home.

The sight instead of Peter fast asleep, his head pressed against the window and small smile on his face was enough to make Tony heart melt, and chance away any last doubts that lingered in his head that Peter was going to be anything less than okay.

When his son refused to speak to a therapist even after weeks of trying any strategy they could think of, drew in on himself and muted his emotions for months during and after Tony’s time in Afghanistan, he had worried that the spark in his son had been put out forever. That no matter how much he tried, Peter would never return to the kid he was before all of this happened.

Tony worried for weeks that his son would never be happy again, and he had ruined his childhood forever, taken something away that he could never give him back.

It had been over a month of car rides Peter refused to fall asleep during no matter how tired he was, no matter how much his dad coaxed him to try.

And now here Peter was after an entire weekend away from his dad, sleeping in the car without any amount of trouble. One minute he was awake and the next he was out, and this time he didn’t even try to fight it like he would have just last week.

There was still a long way left they had to go in order for Peter to heal fully, and it was likely that he was never going to be the exact same person he was before, would always have some lingering fear while his dad was away and need more physical reassurance when he was around. But seeing him asleep gave Tony hope for the first time that things were going to be okay.

Peter was going to be okay.

In the end, that’s all he really needed anyways.


End file.
